


Bismillah

by KingHippiedude (missreader)



Series: Muslim Steve Rogers [1]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: -Ish, Canon Compliant, Canon Era, Gen, Islam, Muslim Character, Muslim Steve Rogers, Post-Serum Steve Rogers, Pre-Serum Steve Rogers, Religion, Religious Content, Religious Conversion, Steve Rogers-centric
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-29
Updated: 2016-04-29
Packaged: 2018-06-05 05:45:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 3,649
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6691975
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/missreader/pseuds/KingHippiedude
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Steve Rogers is Muslim. How does this change the perception of Captain America as the physical embodiment of patriotism and what it means to be an American?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Steve entered the mosque a bit timidly, following Harun. The call to prayer had already begun, so they quickly removed their shoes and slipped into the back row of men. Steve slid into place and centered himself as the adhan came to a close. He had visited the mosque a few times now, and the call to prayer always seemed so calming in a way very little was in New York. Even though he didn’t understand the words, there was something almost magical about the singing, chanting tone in which it was recited.

He wasn’t quite sure he was ready to say the shahada yet, but he knew that this was where he was meant to be. He felt connected with Islam in a way that he hadn’t with Catholicism since he was a young boy. But it also reminded him of that childhood faith. The ritual and repetition of prayers in a foreign tongue was familiar, even though the particulars (the pattern of kneeling, standing and sitting in pews versus standing, ruku, sujud, and sitting on the ground; Latin versus Arabic; The Lord’s Prayer versus Sura al-Fatiha) were as different as they could be in many respects.

Steve didn’t know what his Irish Catholic mother would say if she were still alive to see him abandoning her faith, but he hoped that she would understand. The Catholics did a lot of good for society, but he didn’t quite feel at home in the church since his mother had passed. He had gone to mass for her more than anything, and he wanted something for himself.

Steve’s tendency to get into fights, his Irish heritage, and his sickliness and small stature all set him apart and made him an outcast. He wasn’t able to hold down a job and only had a few real friends, but he had somehow managed to find a home with these Syrian men and women and their religion. They were outcasts just as much as Steve was, but they had a community to support one another, a community which now included Steve. Maybe today was the day after all.


	2. Chapter 2

“Makes you think twice about enlisting, doesn’t it?” asked the young man sitting next to Steve.

“Nope,” he responded easily.

And it was true. It had taken Steve relatively little thought to decide to do everything in his power to enlist and aid the war effort, and once his mind was made up, precious little could do anything to change it. Steve felt compelled, as an American and as a Muslim, to play his part in this war. As the Qur’an says, “fight them until there is no more persecution”. And there was plenty—too much—persecution right then.

***

“Do you want to kill Nazis?” the doctor—Erskine—asks him.

“Is this a test?” Steve replies at first, gathering his thoughts on how to respond.

“Yes,” Erskine told him simply.

“I don't want to kill anyone. I don't like bullies; I don't care where they're from,” Steve finally answered. To say he didn’t like bullies was an understatement; Steve was determined to fight injustice wherever he encountered it, in whatever form it took.

He was exceedingly grateful when Dr. Erskine gave him a chance. Steve knew that he was capable of more than he was currently given the opportunity to do, and Dr. Erskine’s project might be the chance to prove that he was just as capable as any other man out there fighting. Bucky had already been drafted, as had many of the men at the mosque, leaving Steve feeling more and more useless and alone back home. Now he would be joining them.

***

Colonel Phillips glanced around at the men then turned to the German doctor and asked, “You're not really thinking about picking Rogers, are you?”

“I wasn't just thinking about it. He is a clear choice,” the man replied.

“When you brought a ninety-pound asthmatic onto my army base, I let it slide. I thought ‘What the hell, maybe he'd be useful to you like a gerbil.’ Never thought you'd pick him. You put a needle in that kid's arm it's gonna go right through him. Look at that. He's makin' me cry.” 

But Erskine responded calmly, “I am looking for qualities beyond the physical.”

“Do you know how long it took to set up this project? Of all the groveling I had to do in front of Senator What's-his-name's committee?”

“Yes, I'm well aware of your efforts.”

“Then throw me a bone. Hodge passed every test we gave him. He's big, he's fast, he obeys orders - he's a soldier.”

“He's a bully. And he may be your American ideal, but is that really who the senator you speak of going to want to test experimental procedures on? I thought you would be glad that our first test would be on the asthmatic Irishman. And regardless, Steve is clearly the right choice; his brains and heart make up for what he lacks in brute strength.”

“That’s not a bad line of thinking to throw at Congress, but I’m still concerned. You don't win wars with niceness, doctor. You win wars with guts.” As Colonel Phillips finished his sentence, he launched a dummy grenade into the middle of the men.

As they scattered, Rogers leaped into the middle and covered the grenade with his body in an effort to protect the others, at the cost of his own life had the grenade been real. Well, there was Phillips’s proof of guts. Rogers was growing on him.


	3. Chapter 3

Steve felt useless going on all these tours, singing and dancing like a performing monkey at a circus. He had thought that getting chosen for Dr. Erskine’s experiment would mean that he would finally be allowed to do something and contribute to the war. But with Erskine and his formula gone, they didn’t want to risk losing Steve. It seemed counterintuitive to him to keep a super soldier at home, but he didn’t really get any say.

He also didn’t get any say in the story of Captain America that was being fed to the masses. Captain America was a fictional character created by the military and government leaders in charge of the program, and he could see very little of himself in it. His dog tags said he was Protestant, something he had never been and a decision he was never consulted about. And his Irish background was never mentioned. He was marketed as the All-American Man, blond hair, blue eyes, born in the good old US of A. Honestly the bit about his hair and eye color was a little too reminiscent of what was happening across the ocean where he ought to be, preferencing certain physical features over others. Now that he was an apparently perfect specimen people overlooked the things that had made him less desirable in the past.

He had never been particularly public about his faith. It just wasn’t something you did, but now that he was expected to hide it, it irked him. He wasn’t actually told explicitly that it was a secret that he was Muslim, but it would ruin the image of that had been built up around Captain America. It was strongly implied that Steve shouldn’t say anything about being Irish or Muslim or anything else that didn’t fit with the fantastical image they were creating.

***

Bucky had just plummeted to his death as far as Steve could tell. There was no way a man could survive a fall like that. But Steve couldn’t quite believe that he was gone even though he had seen it with his own two eyes. He kept expecting Bucky to walk through the door laughing, and everything would go back to normal. But at the same time, it was as if there was a ragged gaping hole in his chest. He felt like he couldn’t breathe for the first time since the serum, and he knew he was imagining the pain and that his lungs would actually fill, but it still ached. He felt raw with his grief and guilt.

Steve had found a storeroom full of alcohol. He hadn’t stopped drinking entirely when he converted to Islam, but he had consumed very little and only on a couple occasions, since it was frowned upon in the Qur’an. But for the first time since that day, he wanted nothing more than to get drunk, and so he sat down amongst the bottles and drained one after another. It took him a while to realize that he wasn’t feeling intoxicated at all despite the large quantities of alcohol he had imbibed in a short period of time. And part of him was grateful. He didn’t like the out-of-control feeling of intoxication, and he felt guilty for going against the word of the Qur’an. But he was also angry; angry that Bucky was gone, angry that he couldn’t get drunk, angry at himself that he had tried to get drunk.

Peggy came along shortly after and calmed the sharp, ragged panic, dulling it to a manageable level and allowing him to see that Bucky made his own—honorable—choice and should be respected. It didn’t dissipate Steve’s grief at all, but it made it more bearable when he realized that he wasn’t alone, that he had Peggy and the Howling Commandos and all his friends from back home who would help him bear his grief. He took a deep breath, pulled himself together, and got back to work. The world needed Captain America.


	4. Chapter 4

After they had finished helping with cleanup after the battle, Steve and the other Avengers started heading towards a shawarma restaurant that was miraculously still open. While they were cleaning up and washing their hands and faces, Steve pulled off his shoes and rolled up his sleeves and pants to perform wudhu. It was a Friday, and he regretted the fact that he wasn’t able to make it to a mosque, but there was no way he was going to hunt for one that was open and undamaged now. His team members seemed a little confused when they noticed what he was doing, but they didn’t disturb him as he washed.

“You’re Muslim?” Hawkeye asked when he was finished.

“Uh, yeah…” Steve replied. He hadn’t really given much thought to the idea that people might not know. He was a public figure, in US history books, constantly on the news. And it wasn’t like it was a secret really, even if he didn’t exactly publicize it either.

“That sure wasn’t in your file. You’d think they might have mentioned that Captain America is a Muslim.”

Apparently someone in the military or government—whoever was in charge of Captain America’s story—had decided that it was a secret if it hadn’t even been in his SHIELD file for his teammates to see. He knew that they hadn’t wanted him to be public about it on the USO tour, but he hadn’t expected them to erase it from history. Then again, he hadn’t expected to sleep through 70 years of history either.

Steve continued, “yeah. The people in charge weren’t really keen on having a Muslim as Captain America. They created this entire fake identity. People didn’t really know a lot about Islam if they weren’t from a country with a relatively large population. And they fear what they don’t understand.”

“That’s so wrong,” Stark butted in. “That information wasn’t just not in your file. I’ve read every piece of information there is available on you, and that tidbit was nowhere to be found. Someone really wanted it hidden.”

Black Widow cut in, “It might have been a later redaction, once the US got involved so heavily in the Middle East and tensions with Muslim-majority nations escalated.”

“Regardless— oh, wait, you were going to pray weren’t you?” Hawkeye cut himself off and asked. “Sorry for holding you up. If it didn’t get damaged too badly, I’m pretty sure there’s a courtyard area between the buildings out back that should be fairly private.”

“Thanks,” Steve said simply. And he headed in the direction Hawkeye had pointed. There was indeed a small open area in the middle of the block, and it hadn’t been hit badly by the battle at all. He took a deep breath and began to recite.


	5. Chapter 5

Steve was waiting around in the airport for his flight. He had turned down Tony’s offer to borrow a private jet, so he found himself in Thurgood Marshall, standing in TSA and bag-check lines with everyone else, eating overpriced food, and sitting in uncomfortable chairs. His flight had been delayed, and he was starting to wish he had taken Stark up on his offer.

His flight was only supposed to be a couple hours at most, from DC to Atlanta, meaning that if he left on time he would have landed well before the end of the prescribed time for salat az-zuhr. But it had been delayed so long now that the prescribed time was about to begin, and he would rather recite the prayer now than have to feel rushed doing it later.

He went into the bathroom nearest to his gate to perform wudhu. There were very few people around, but he definitely got a few confused looks when the couple other men saw him washing his arms and feet.

After he was clean, he began to look around for a map of the airport or signs pointing him to a chapel, but he couldn’t find anything. Because apparently this airport didn’t actually have a chapel.

He did, however, run into another man praying in the terminal. Almost literally. The man was in one of the more open areas in the middle of the seating area at one of the gates. He was starting to draw some uncomfortable stares and negative attention. So—of course—Steve being the person he is, he slipped off his shoes and joined the other man, praying right there in the middle of the airport. The attention they got was a little odd and uncomfortable, but Steve thrived on upsetting expectations and making people uncomfortable.

Steve ignored the people staring as he lost himself in the recitation of the prayer.

Apparently someone had called security, because when he finished his prayer he noticed a handful of TSA agents hovering, looking everything from bored to anxious to angry. The bored looking one approached Steve and the other man and gestured for them to follow him somewhere more private, saying, “we just need to ask you both a few questions.”

As they turned and followed the TSA agents, Steve thought he heard someone whisper, “Is that… it can’t be… that’s Captain America!”

They were led to what appeared to be holding/interrogation rooms where they were separated and each entered a different room with a different agent.

The man who was questioning him seemed a little angry and bored at the same time at first. He asked for Steve’s passport in a brusque, gruff tone. But as soon as he realized who Steve was, his demeanor noticeably changed. He became much more welcoming and polite once he realized he was talking to Captain America.

“Captain Rogers, would you mind explaining what you were doing in the terminal?”

“I was praying,” Steve answered simply. I would be polite, but he wasn’t in the mood to deal with TSA’s racist and Islamophobic policies.

“And who was the other man who was with you?”

“I don’t know. I was looking for a place to pray and ran into him praying as well, so I decided that I might as well just join him.”

“Do you mind if I look through your bag?”

“Go ahead.”

The man put on latex gloves and cautiously opened Steve’s carry-on as if he thought there might be explosives in it. He pulled out Steve’s change of clothes, his notebook and wallet, his copy of The Lord of the Rings—which he was finally getting around to reading in his attempt to catch up on pop culture, and finally his copy of the Qur’an with both Arabic and English text.

“What is this book?” the agent asked.

“It’s a Qur’an.”

“But what does it say?”

“It says a lot of things. It’s like the Bible. It’s a religious text.”

“And why are you reading it?”

“Because I’m Muslim, and I’m trying to learn more Arabic so that I can read it in the original language.”

“Captain America can’t be Muslim! It’s not American; it’s not patriotic!”

“There is nothing inherently unpatriotic or un-American about being Muslim. We have freedom of religion in this country, and I have been a Muslim since before you were born.”

“Of course, sir,” the man responded, a little more subdued. “I’ll escort you back to your gate now. You should still be able to make your flight.”

“And the other man?”

“I don’t know, and even if I did, we can’t give that information out to passengers. He was brought in for questioning because he seemed suspicious.”

"He was doing the exact same thing as me, and I’m allowed to go. You can’t detain people just for being Muslim.”

“I’m sorry, Captain Rogers. I’m just doing my job. But I will do my best to make sure the man makes his flight.”

“I guess that’s all I can ask,” Steve replied. He wanted to fume more, to rage at the system that treated people as guilty until proven innocent just because of the color of their skin or their religious affiliation. But he perceived that he wasn’t going to make any real impact by ranting at this single TSA officer who was—as he had said—just doing his job.

***

When Steve landed in Atlanta and turned his phone back on, it exploded with notifications. Apparently some of the people watching him pray in the airport had been taking pictures of them and shared them online, because there were multiple news stories with headlines like “CAPTAIN AMERICA MUSLIM?” and “TERRORIST ON THE AVENGERS? Captain America Observed Praying to Allah”

Some of the posts were fairly neutral, reporting that he had been observed praying with another man in a distinctly Muslim fashion. A few were positive, saying how much it means that Captain America was performing Muslim prayers, even if he’s not Muslim, and how amazing it would be if it turned out he were actually Muslim. And a large number were fairly negative, ranging from mild concern about ways in which the reporter thought being Muslim might negatively impact his identity as and ability to be an Avenger to outright absurd conspiracy theories that he was actually Osama bin Laden in disguise.


	6. Chapter 6

“And please give a warm welcome to our special guest this week, Steve Rogers.”

“Thank you, John,” Steve said, greeting the host.

“This week we’re talking about Muslims in America, so I thought, why not invite the most famous American Muslim today.”

“And I’m very grateful. This is the first time I’ve spoken publicly since it came out that I’m Muslim. It was never meant to be a secret, but it became that somehow and now it’s much bigger news than I ever expected it would be.”

“So were you born Muslim or did you convert?”

“I converted in the thirties. My parents were Catholic, and I went to until she got too sick. After she died, I realized that it didn’t feel right anymore and eventually I found a home in a mosque.”

“Were there many Muslims in the US in those days? And was it hard to be Muslim?”

“The Muslim population was definitely smaller than it is now, but it’s hard to know how many people there were precisely, but there were always immigrants in New York and some of them were Muslim. It wasn’t hard exactly, but there wasn’t really any visibility and nobody talked about it. Even if they hadn’t created the character of Captain America, I wouldn’t have been able to put my religious affiliation on my military dog tags because they only marked Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish, or No Preference. In a lot of ways things are better now. There’s a lot more recognition and visibility of Islam. But there’s also a lot of fear and discrimination that I didn’t imagine I would ever see back when I first converted.”

“And the current election cycle hasn’t been helping with that.”

“No, I’m shocked at the blatant bigotry, discrimination, and hatred that I’ve seen lately. Especially with regards to the Syrian refugee crisis.”

“Yes. I heard you donated a lot of money to the International Rescue Committee to aid the refugees.”

“I did. When I received my back pay from the army for all the years I was unconscious, it was more money that I had any use for, and as a Muslim, I’m called to give at least 2.5% of my wealth to charity. I was disturbed by the lack of response to the crisis, so I donated a large sum to help those in need. The refugees that are seeking asylum in the US are fleeing the very same terrorism that we fear. And nearly every single person in this nation is an immigrant or descended from immigrants; it is a nation formed on immigration and a desire for freedom from oppression.”

“So, as everyone can see through your example, Islam can also be a religion of kindness and charity.”

“Of course. Islam is just as complex as Christianity or Judaism, and its practices are as varied as its practitioners.”

“Thank you again, Steve, coming out tonight.”

“Thank you for having me; I hope that people have been able to see that there is more to Islam that terrorist attacks and suicide bombers and feel called to do something about the many refugees displaced from their homes. Have a good night!”


End file.
